Citrus Heights, 1990's
I was laying out on a towel in the backyard of our home. We used to have an above-ground pool in the backyard. I'm not sure who I was with or if I had been swimming, all I remember about this particular day was that my mom came out back and headed over to the pool. I don't think she was going swimming, but I'm not sure what she was doing. She reached the pool and started climbing the ladder. She climbed up the 4 or 5 steps to the top of the ladder and when she reached the top step, just before the little platform, something happened that before this day I thought only happened in cartoons.
There she was on the top step and it split right in the middle and the feet that had been on the top step were now suddenly a step lower, and in an unbelievable moment of rot meets gravity, when she reached that next step IT ALSO BROKE and once again she fell through the step and was down to the next one. The next broke and the whole thing replayed.
I don't know how my mom ended up back on solid ground because I was laughing so hard my eyes wouldn't open and were likely filled with tears. It was a moment I still giggle about when I replay it in my head.
I think she lost all the skin on her shins by the time the great ladder incident was over. I swear it was straight out of an episode of the Looney Toons except she had wounds and the cartoon guys are unharmed.
I laughed. It never crossed my mind she could have broke something, it was simply too funny to think beyond the visual.
Santa Cruz, 2009
The summer before we moved to Germany we spent about 3 weeks in California visiting family. The plan was to allow our household goods time to get from Virginia to Germany so they would be there when we arrived, and we wanted an opportunity to spend time with people we may not see for a while. On this great adventure we went camping with my parents and sister and her family. Mom and dad pulled their trailer to a great little campground walking distance from the beach, and my sister and brother in-law and kids brought down some tents for everyone who didn't want to sleep in the trailer.
One night after dinner, it was just getting dark in the campground and the quiet of the night was shattered when my dad missed one of the steps coming out of the trailer and fell into the dirt.
His fall was silent.
My reaction was epic.
The distance was a mere three feet at most, but my scream "DAAAAAAAAAD?!!" made it seem like he had just plummeted 3,000 feet into a bed of hot coals.
It was apparently such a loud and convincing scream that fellow campers from other places in the campground came running to aid the man who had a little bit of dirt on his jeans.
Dad just kept trying to convince everyone he was "fine" and all he did was miss the step. We ushered all of the heroic campers back to their sites and my dad, Matt, and I stood there looking at each other. Matt was yelling at me for being ridiculous and embarrassing my dad, my dad was crying which was kind of still panicking me, and I was crying because something had changed inside me.
About 20 years earlier, my mom's fall down the steps was hilarious, and this day my dad's fall down the steps was haunting.
Nobody could figure out why I freaked out.
In my head when I saw him fall my fear was in the question of why? Did he have a heart attack, a stroke, is he off-balance, is he getting o-l-d?
This moment, I realized the fragility of the life of my parents. And in this moment, my dad's fall shook me instead of fill me with laughter.
I was laying out on a towel in the backyard of our home. We used to have an above-ground pool in the backyard. I'm not sure who I was with or if I had been swimming, all I remember about this particular day was that my mom came out back and headed over to the pool. I don't think she was going swimming, but I'm not sure what she was doing. She reached the pool and started climbing the ladder. She climbed up the 4 or 5 steps to the top of the ladder and when she reached the top step, just before the little platform, something happened that before this day I thought only happened in cartoons.
There she was on the top step and it split right in the middle and the feet that had been on the top step were now suddenly a step lower, and in an unbelievable moment of rot meets gravity, when she reached that next step IT ALSO BROKE and once again she fell through the step and was down to the next one. The next broke and the whole thing replayed.
I don't know how my mom ended up back on solid ground because I was laughing so hard my eyes wouldn't open and were likely filled with tears. It was a moment I still giggle about when I replay it in my head.
I think she lost all the skin on her shins by the time the great ladder incident was over. I swear it was straight out of an episode of the Looney Toons except she had wounds and the cartoon guys are unharmed.
I laughed. It never crossed my mind she could have broke something, it was simply too funny to think beyond the visual.
Santa Cruz, 2009
The summer before we moved to Germany we spent about 3 weeks in California visiting family. The plan was to allow our household goods time to get from Virginia to Germany so they would be there when we arrived, and we wanted an opportunity to spend time with people we may not see for a while. On this great adventure we went camping with my parents and sister and her family. Mom and dad pulled their trailer to a great little campground walking distance from the beach, and my sister and brother in-law and kids brought down some tents for everyone who didn't want to sleep in the trailer.
One night after dinner, it was just getting dark in the campground and the quiet of the night was shattered when my dad missed one of the steps coming out of the trailer and fell into the dirt.
His fall was silent.
My reaction was epic.
The distance was a mere three feet at most, but my scream "DAAAAAAAAAD?!!" made it seem like he had just plummeted 3,000 feet into a bed of hot coals.
It was apparently such a loud and convincing scream that fellow campers from other places in the campground came running to aid the man who had a little bit of dirt on his jeans.
Dad just kept trying to convince everyone he was "fine" and all he did was miss the step. We ushered all of the heroic campers back to their sites and my dad, Matt, and I stood there looking at each other. Matt was yelling at me for being ridiculous and embarrassing my dad, my dad was crying which was kind of still panicking me, and I was crying because something had changed inside me.
About 20 years earlier, my mom's fall down the steps was hilarious, and this day my dad's fall down the steps was haunting.
Nobody could figure out why I freaked out.
In my head when I saw him fall my fear was in the question of why? Did he have a heart attack, a stroke, is he off-balance, is he getting o-l-d?
This moment, I realized the fragility of the life of my parents. And in this moment, my dad's fall shook me instead of fill me with laughter.
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